From the Floor: Outdoors and Undercover

Adelaide Macaroni Padgett is a puppy, specializing in sleep and play. She is author of The Perils of White Puppies in New England and Growling at Windmills. Her series for this blog "From the Floor" strives to provide a commonplace-if not subaltern-view of newsworthy events.

Pembroke, NH--As the high pressure front continues its move through the Northeast, I'm still--as you can see in the picture--having to get under a blanket at night. It's still dropping below freezing out there at night, but I have some good news: The time for playing outside has come. Puppies, rejoice!

I went outside yesterday for about 45 minutes, and it was fantastic. I ran after the ball for a while, and then I did a general sniff-through of the yard's perimeter. Everything was good except for one thing.

There were leaves on the ground. After all of that snow melted, there was a canopy littered across the ground. Either Mother Nature is a magician or my man-owner got a little lazy this fall. To top it off, he didn't even get a rake out. Nope. He just took the lawn mower to the brown, crunchy lawn.

I scoffed at his laziness at first, but I came to be very impressed with the results. No longer will I lose my tennis ball in the two inches of leaves. I have a grayish-green yard to bound across. Well done, sir.

Now I'm hoping that he'll take a torch to the shadowy corner of the yard with the big pile of snow in it. That's valuable real estate for a puppy like me.